Editorial: ‘Parent Trigger’ law closer to reality

Parents and those concerned with education reform were victorious when the California Board of Education on July 13 unanimously approved tentative regulations governing the groundbreaking "Parent Trigger," a state law allowing parents of children in failing school districts to overhaul schools, teachers, staff and administration via petition. The state board should be applauded because it rightly kept intact one of California's few innovative approaches to empower parents and hold public schools accountable.

Narrowly approved by the Legislature during the Schwarzenegger administration, the Parent Trigger allows parents to demand radical reforms of their failing school. Under the law, when a majority of parents petition for a school to be reformed, the district must take action – one option could be the conversion of a regular public school into a charter school.

One of the weaknesses of the law, though, had been its lack of clarity; how it could be utilized, the process for petitioning reform, etc. This allowed opponents of the law to attempt to circumvent its use. At Compton's McKinley Elementary School, for example, administrators and the local teachers union attempted to block parents from using the law and converting the school to a charter by disqualifying parent petitions on technicalities.

But the state education board's new rules should clarify the use of the law. Parent Revolution, an advocacy group backing the Parent Trigger, heralded the reform as a win for parents and highlighted certain aspects of the new regulations:

•"They ban harassment and intimidation of parents organizing around Parent Trigger, and they ban the use of school resources to campaign for or against Parent Trigger;"

•"They create a model petition, so that no future Parent Trigger petition will ever be thrown out due to a technicality;"

•"They provide every parent at all 1,300 Parent Trigger-eligible schools in California with notice about the law and their rights under the law;"

•"They create common sense signature verification procedures and timelines, and mandate that no legitimate signature shall ever be thrown out based on a technicality;"

•"They empower parents to choose their charter or in-district reform partner through a transparent and public parent-led RFP process after the parents have won the organizing campaign, and;"

•"They reject CTA's outrageous proposal that teachers be given veto power over Parent Trigger."

Even though Parent Revolution was optimistic about the clarifying regulations, one lingering issue will likely be the California Teachers Association's continued demand that teachers be given a veto of the law, that is, a majority of a school's teachers must also vote in favor of an overhaul for it to take effect. But, as noted by the Los Angeles Times, board president Michael Kirst said, "It's called the parent empowerment act, not the teacher empowerment act, for a reason." Even so, we expect the CTA to continue fighting the Parent Trigger, or at least subvert its intent, giving teachers more power in the process, perhaps even through new legislation.

The battle is not over. A public comment period on the new rules is pending, so they could still be challenged. But for at least the time being, Californians have a game-changing education reform on the books.

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